Saudi forces gun down man during raid on family home

Saudi Arabian forces have gunned down a man allegedly sought for an attack last month on a checkpoint in the southwestern region of Asir.

The Saudi Interior Ministry reported the fatal shooting on Monday, with the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) naming the suspect as Khaled Mohammed Ali al-Shahri.

The operation targeted the suspect’s “family home” in the town of al-Wahda on Saturday, with SPA claiming that al-Shahri put up resistance and even attacked the forces with a knife.

On April 20, the agency reported that at least four Saudi officers had been shot dead and four others wounded after gunmen stormed their checkpoint on Arqob Road between the provinces of Mujarda and Bareq in the border region.

Citing the ministry, it said local authorities had killed one suspect and apprehended two others, both Saudi nationals.

Riyadh has been cracking down on the Qatif region in the kingdom’s Shia-populated Eastern Province, blaming its residents for such attacks against security forces.

The campaign has seen the authorities limiting the electricity supply intended for the region, carrying out repeated and sometimes deadly swoops on residences, and razing an entire historical neighborhood in the region’s town of Awamiyah,

Asir borders Yemen, the subject of a three-year Saudi invasion, which seeks to restore the impoverished country’s former officials allied to Riyadh.

Around 14,000 people have died since the onset of the invasion, prompting Yemen’s army, its allied popular fighters, and Houthi Ansarullah movement to conduct retaliatory attacks targeting southwestern Saudi regions, including Asir.

Most recently, the Yemeni army and its allies late Saturday fired a Zalzal 2 ballistic missile against Asir, destroying the Ain al-Thwareen base there and leaving an unknown number of casualties.